[Surtees] arranged for Sheene to have his first drive in a Grand Prix car at Brands Hatch in August 1977 during a private mid-week session away from the glare of the media. With his car-mad pal George Harrison looking on, Sheene completed 70 laps of the short Indy circuit and, despite having faulty brakes, came within 2.9 seconds of the lap record - an impressive performance, even if it didn't overly excite Barry. "It was no major problem to achieve that fast time," he said later, "and the experience, although enjoyable and requiring immense concentration, did not stimulate me to the point where I felt I just had to switch to four wheels."

He did consider racing a Surtees in the Aurora series but his bike racing commitments ruled it out.

Late last week, Barry Sheene was down at Paul Ricard having a run in one of Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham-BMW BT54s. No, it doesn't seem that Bernie is going to sign up the former motorcyclist for F1 next year, but rather a chance for Sheene and two other motorbike men, Franco Uncini and Marco Luchinelli, to have a little taste of F1 power. The deal came about when Sheene was at the Adelaide F1 race and joking about having a run in the car. Ecclestone offered him a go on the spot. . .

So how did it go? "Ah, well, I couldn't fit in the car," related Sheene. "I couldn't get there for a proper fitting and the car was set up for Uncini and Luchinelli. We took the seat out, but it was still not big enough, so in the end I only did seven laps, steering with my knees and unable to change down gears as my elbows wouldn't fit in the cockpit. . ."

[Surtees] arranged for Sheene to have his first drive in a Grand Prix car at Brands Hatch in August 1977 during a private mid-week session away from the glare of the media. With his car-mad pal George Harrison looking on, Sheene completed 70 laps of the short Indy circuit and, despite having faulty brakes, came within 2.9 seconds of the lap record - an impressive performance, even if it didn't overly excite Barry. "It was no major problem to achieve that fast time," he said later, "and the experience, although enjoyable and requiring immense concentration, did not stimulate me to the point where I felt I just had to switch to four wheels."

He did consider racing a Surtees in the Aurora series but his bike racing commitments ruled it out.

Ahemmm....You need to consider the overall laptime....

2,9 seconds off the lap record (assuming for the same class of car - and not relative to an 8 litre McLaren or somesuch) around the short Brands Indy circuit is dead slow.F1 cars do that lap in roughly 50 seconds or even less

in comparison2,9 seconds off Niki Laudas record of 6 min 58 seconds round the old Nürburgring would have been sensational

all things are relative but Barry interpretation of his achievements are pure public relations bumpfthat explains why he stuck to bikes

The current lap record for the Indy circuit according to wikipedia: 0:38.032 (Scott Mansell, Benetton B197, 2004, EuroBOSS)Todays DTM does the lap in around 42 seconds.And here's a list for times of road cars.

So how did it go? "Ah, well, I couldn't fit in the car," related Sheene. "I couldn't get there for a proper fitting and the car was set up for Uncini and Luchinelli. We took the seat out, but it was still not big enough, so in the end I only did seven laps, steering with my knees and unable to change down gears as my elbows wouldn't fit in the cockpit. . ."

I wonder how tall Sheene was. Looking at the pictures it seems that Sheene is fitting quite nicely in the car, while Luccinelli is sitting much higher in it.